The Justice of God. 3

2. The RULE of God's justice.

Righteousness in creatures is according to some law, which is the rule of it, and to which it is conformed. The moral law of God, which is holy, just, and good—is our rule of righteousness or right doing. But the Most High God has no law outside Himself: He is a law to Himself. His nature and His will are the law and rule of righteousness to Him. This is an attribute common to the three Persons in the Godhead: necessarily so, since They partake of the same undivided essence. Hence we find the first Person is designated the "righteous Father" (John 17:25), the Son is called "Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1), and that it is proper to the Holy Spirit is evident from the fact that He is here to convict the world "of righteousness" (John 16:8). As the present aspect of our subject is of such great importance, we must endeavor to give it our best attention.

"The will of God is the highest rule of justice, so that what He wills must be considered just: for this very reason, because He willed it. When it is enquired, therefore, why the Lord did so? the answer must be, Because He would. But if you further ask why He so determined, you are in search of something greater and higher than the will of God, which can never be found" (Calvin's Institutes, book 3, chapter 3, section 2). How great was the light granted to the eminent Reformer, and how clearly and boldly he expressed himself thereon. What a contrast from the obscurity which now obtains in this so-called age of enlightenment, with its ambiguous, hesitant and apologetic declarations. That Calvin was by no means alone in this exalted view, will appear from other quotations given below.

In answer to the question, "Why was it that Adam was permitted to fall and corrupt his whole posterity, when God could have prevented his fall?" Luther said, "God is a Being whose will acknowledges no cause: neither is it for us to prescribe rules to His sovereign pleasure—or call Him to account for what He does. He has neither superior nor equal, and His will is the rule of all things. He did not therefore will such and such things because they were right and He was bound to will them—but they are therefore equitable and right because He wills them. The will of men can indeed be influenced and moved—but God's will never can. To assert the contrary is to undeify Him" (Bondage of Man's Will). To the same effect Bucer said, "God has no other motive to what He does—than His own mere will, which will is so far from being unrighteous, it is justice itself."

God is absolute Lord, so that "All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does what He wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can hold back His hand or say to Him—What have You done?" (Dan. 4:35). And why not? Because He not only has the might—but also the fullest right to do as He pleases. None were before Him, none are above Him: nay, He has no equal to direct Him, and therefore there is none unto whom He must render an account of His matters. What God ordains for us and what He orders from us—is just and right, simply because He so wills it. Hence it was that Abraham looked upon it as a righteous act to slay his innocent son. But why did he so esteem it—because the written law of God authorized murder? No. On the contrary, both the law of God and the law of nature peremptorily forbade it; but the holy Patriarch well knew that the will of God is the only rule of justice, and that whatever He is pleased to command, is on that very account righteous.

"What is the justice of God? It is an essential property in God, whereby He is infinitely just in Himself, of Himself, for, from, and by Himself alone, and no other. What is the rule of this justice? His own free will and nothing else—for whatever He wills is just, and because He wills it, it is just, and not because it is just therefore He wills it" (James Usher, Body of Divinity). In answering the objection that "it is unjust for God to inflict eternal punishment upon temporary offenses, there being no proportion between the infinite and the finite," the Puritan, Thomas Brooks, wisely began his reply by saying: "First, God's will is the rule of righteousness, and therefore whatever He does or shall do, must needs be righteous. He is Lord of all: He has a sovereign right, and an absolute supremacy over the creature" (Vol. 6, p. 213).

We have added one quotation after another from these renowned servants of God of the past, because the truth which we are now laboring, has been repudiated in quarters in which it was not to be expected. Even in circles which might justly be termed orthodox— where in the main the onslaughts of infidelity were steadfastly resisted and the "landmarks" of the fathers steadily maintained—the sharp edge of the Spirit's Sword, was dulled and those aspects of Truth most of all repellant to human pride toned down.

In the above paragraph, we alluded to those who have, under the guise of magnifying God's holiness, subordinated the Divine will to the Divine nature, insisting that "things are not just because God has commanded them—but He has commanded them because they are just." Our meaning is that there was a reason for them in the nature of things, and that therefore He has enforced them by His authority. In plain language they mean that the Most High was not free to frame whatever laws He pleased—but was limited by the fitness of things, that His imperial will must conform to some standard outside of itself. Before we examine this position more closely, and turn upon it the light of Holy Writ, we will give yet one or two further quotations from eminent servants of God in the past, for the purpose of showing how radically it differs from what they taught.

Thomas Manton took the position that in contemplating the Divine justice, "God must be considered under a twofold relation: as absolute Lord, and as Governor and Judge of the world. As absolute Lord, His justice is nothing but the absolute and free motion of His own will concerning the estate of His creatures. In this respect God is wholly arbitrary and has no other rule but His own will: He does not will things because they are just—but therefore they are just because He wills them. He has a right of making and framing anything as He wills in any manner as it pleases Him . . . As Governor and Judge, He gives a law to His creatures, and His governing justice consists in giving all their due according to His law" (Vol. 8, people. 438, 439).

"The will of God is so the cause of all things, as to be itself without cause, for nothing can be the cause of that which is the cause of everything: when we ascend to that, we can go no further. Hence we find every matter resolved ultimately into the mere sovereign pleasure of God, as the spring and occasion of whatever is done in Heaven and earth . . . The only reason that can be assigned why the Deity does this or that, is because it is His own free pleasure so to do" (from the pen of the author of "Rock of Ages" and other well-known hymns, in his "Observations on the Divine Attributes": 1750). Such teaching as this, alone preserves the Divine independence and presents the true God in His unrivaled freedom and supremacy, unhampered by anything within or without Himself.

But against this God-exalting teaching, it is objected that such postulates obliterate all distinction between God's sovereignty and His justice, merging the latter entirely into the former. With equal justification might we complain that the objector fails to maintain any distinction between the Divine holiness and the Divine justice, making the former to completely swallow up the latter. Should it be asked, Wherein shall we distinguish between the Divine holiness and justice? We answer, Divine holiness has to do more with what God is; Divine justice respects what He does. Or to state it in other words, holiness pertains to the Divine character, justice to His office. Thus, "Justice and righteousness are the foundation of His throne" (Psalm 89:14), that is, they relate to His public administration, to the government of His creatures. It is as Ruler and Judge, that the Divine justice is exercised and displayed.

As to the objection that we obliterate all distinctions between the Divine sovereignty and justice, our reply is that we cannot do otherwise if our thoughts are to be formed entirely by the Scriptures. "Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:11). There is no getting around that explicit statement, and to it we must rigidly subordinate our minds and formulate our theology if we are to "think God's thoughts after Him." Observe well it is not here said that God works all things according to the exigencies of Hisholiness—or according to the dictates of His wisdom—but "according to the counsel of His own will."

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